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The younger brother of a man suspected in the kidnapping and killings of an 8-month-old baby, her parents and an uncle, was arrested on suspicion he helped his brother destroy evidence, authorities said Friday.
Alberto Salgado, 41, was arrested late Thursday and accused of criminal conspiracy, accessory, and destroying evidence, the Merced County Sheriff’s Office said. He’s booked in the Merced County Jail — the same place where suspect Jesus Salgado, 48, is being held on kidnapping and murder charges. It wasn’t clear whether either brother had a lawyer who could speak on their behalf.
The bodies of Aroohi Dheri; her mother Jasleen Kaur, 27; father Jasdeep Singh, 36; and uncle Amandeep Singh, 39, were found by a farm worker late Wednesday in an almond orchard in a remote area in the San Joaquin Valley, California’s agricultural heartland.
Jesus Salgado — a convicted felon who tried to kill himself a day after the kidnappings — had worked for the family’s trucking business and had a longstanding feud with them, Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke told The Associated Press Thursday.
He was treated at a hospital before being taken to jail.
Warnke had said detectives were also seeking a person of interest believed to be his accomplice.
Relatives of the victims and fellow members of the Punjabi Sikh community, meanwhile, were shocked by the killings.
At a vigil Thursday evening in downtown Merced, hundreds of people held lit candles and formed a circle of around enlarged photos of the victims. Religious leaders of different faiths opened the ceremony with prayers for the family, the Merced Sun-Star reported.
